Turn-table.



J. J. SIMMONDS.

TURN TABLE.

VAPPLICATION FILED 00T.22, 1913.

Patented Apr. 21, 1914.

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INVENTORI WlTNESSES: Z7. Q /aa M ATTORNEYS COLUMBIA PLANOGRAFHco.,\vAsmNa'roN, D. c.

J. J. SIMMONDS.

TURN TABLE.

APPLIOATION FILED 0OT.22, 1913. 1,094,026, Patented Apr. 21, 1914.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WlTNESSEZZ INVENTRZ ,777. a. 1

ATTORNEYS COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH C0..wAsHlNGToN. D. c.

UNITED STATES JOHN J". SIMMONDS, OF IOLA, KANSAS, ASSIG-NOR T0 COMPANY,OF IOLA,

THE SIMMON DS ENGINEERING KANSAS, A CORPORATION OF KANSAS.

TURN -TABLE Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed October22, 1913.

Patented Apr. 21, 1914. Serial N o. 796,581.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, JOHN J. SIMMoNDs, a citizen of the United States,residing at and whose post-oflice address is Iola, county of Allen,State of Kansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inTurn- Tables; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,and exact description of the invention, such as will enable othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to certain new and useful improvements inturn-tables of the kind employed, principally in mining andmetallurgical operations, for the transfer of small four-wheeled cars orlorries from one to the other of intersecting tracks. It is designedparticularly for the purpose of avoiding the frequent mishaps thatoccur, in ordinary practice, in the transfer of cars or lorries of thistype and which sometimes result in the overturning of the cars, damageto the cars themselves, transfer table and the trackway, and injury tothe workmen.

To this end, the invention contemplates such a construction andarrangement of the turn table and its accessories that many of theaccidents which are due to carelessness and inattention on the part ofthe workmen intrusted with the handling and transfer of the cars aremade impossible.

The invention likewise provides a construction of turn table welladapted to withstand the requirements of severe service, and simple andeconomical in point of manufacture and facility of repair.

The main characteristic feature of the invention, as will hereinaftermore fully appear, consists in providing a latch normally' locking therotary platform of the turntable, so that its track grooves will be intransmitting alinement respectively with the rails of the intersectingtracks, saidy latch being connected with an arrester pin in suchrelationship to a corresponding arrester plate carried by the severalmine cars or lorries, that when a car is centered upon the rotaryplatform, and the latch is tripped, the platform may be shifted into theposition which will bring the traction wheels of the car into alinementwith the rails of the intersecting track to which it is to betransferred, and will be held in place upon the movable platform by thearrester pin during the shifting operation until the transfer positionhas been reached, whereupon it will be automatically released at thesame time that the latch again comes into action.

A structure embodying my invention, in its preferred form, isillustrated in the ac- `companying drawings, wherein* Figure lrepres-ents a top plan view of the turn-table, with its trackways 1nposition of tracks which 1t serves,- Fig. 2 represents a side elevationthereof; Fig. 3 represents a central vertical section thereof, andlikewise shows the rotatory platform unlatched and ready to be shiftedand a car arrested in place thereon; Fig. 4 represents a view, partly insection and partly in elevation, with the automatic latch normallylocking the platform, so that its trackway will be in transmittingalinement with the intersecting rail lines and so that the car on theplatform will be release Similar letters of reference indicate similarparts throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawings, A, B, indicate respectively the intersectingtrack rails of the mine car or lorry tracks at whose inter1` section thetransfer turn-table constituting the invention is located. a indicatesthe rotatory platform, consisting preferably of a single casting havinga central hub o and provided with intersecting grooves constitutingtrackways c, o and d, cl. The rotatory platform a; is located within theoutlying rim portion of the turntable frame, said rim portion consistingof the wings e and brackets K. The main body portion f, of the frame isprovided with a cylindrical projection f within which engages, to turnfreely, the central hub b of the platform. The underside of the platforma is provided with a circular groove g corresponding in position to asimilar circular groove it of the main body portion of the frame, thesaid rooves serving as a runway for a series of alls, e. constituting aball-bearing.

The wings e of the turn-table frame support the brackets K of lowerlevel bolted thereto, and upon the brackets are mounted respectively theproximate ends of the A track rails A, B, so as to bring theflanges ofthe earwheels in alinement with the track grooves of the rotatoryplatform when the latterl is locked in position by the latch. Thebrackets also strengthen the frame at its corners which receive thefirst impact of the traction wheels of the mine ears or lorries.

To the underside of the main body portion f of the frame is bolted abracket Z having a cross-pin m which serves as the fulerum of a rockinglink a. One end of this link is connected by a pin and lost-motion slotwith a latch pin 29, which is guided in a boss p of the frame. The otherend of the link n is connected by a pin and lost-motion slot with anarrester pin o' which passes freely through the central projection b ofthe rotatory platform.

Upon reference to Fig. 3, it will be noted that when the arrester pin ris in its upper position of adjustment, it engages the aperture s of anarrester plate t carried by the mine ear or lorry, and, at the sametime, the latch pin p is in its lowermost position, and out ofengagement with any of the recesses o which are spaced at 90 (or suchangle as the tracks may cross) apart on the under surface of therotatory platform. Consequently, the platform, in this adjustment of thelatch is unlocked and may be shifted by the operator, without danger ofreleasing the car until the traveling platform is brought to a positionat right angles (or such angle as the tracks may cross) to its originalposition. In the meantime, the arrester pin r is held in its upper andarrested position by reason of the fact that the latch pin p cannotrise, it being prevented from so doing by the impediment offered by theflat under portion of the platform. Finally, however, when the platformhas shifted 90O (or such angle as the tracks may cross) from its4original position, the latch pin 79 comes opposite the next recess i)of the series; whereupon, by reason of the countervailing weight of thearrester pin i, the latch pin p rises into the recess e and locks theplatform in that position, at the same time permitting the arrester pinr to drop out of engagement with the slot s of the arrester'plate tcarried by the mine car or lorry. This adjustment is represented inFigs. 2 and 4, which shows the automatic latch as locking the rotatoryplatform in place and automatically releasing the mine car or lorry; sothat the released car may new be pushed on to the intersecting track.

It will be noted as characteristic of the construction that theeountervailing weight of the arrester pin r tends constantly to lift thelatch pin p into the locking position, and that the latch pin,accordingly, will lock the rotatory platform in place whenever the latchpin comes opposite any one of the recesses 'u spaced at 900 (or suchangle as the tracks may cross) apart. The normal position of theautomat-ic latch, that is to say, the position which it assumes when theturn-table out of service is, therefore, indicated in Figs. 2 and l. Inthis position, the rotatory platform is securely held against anyaccidental rotary shifting movement, and, consequently, the trackgrooves of the platform are locked in alinement with the rails of theintersecting tracks, so that continuity of the track supports for thecars or lorries is assured for both of the intersecting tracks andacross the rotatory platform. So also, the arrester pin 1 is below thelevel of the arrester plates of the mine cars and offers no impedimentto their movement across the rotatory platform.

Then it is desired to transfer a ear or lorry, from one track to theother, the ear is stopped by the operator upon the rotary platform, asindicated in Fig. l, and is brought to a central position thereon, thatis to say, so that the slet s of the arrester plate t shall be directlyabove the upper end of the arrester pin r. It is impossible, however,for the operator to shift the rotatory platform at all until the latchpin p has been dis-engaged by him from the recess v in which it isnormally held by the countervailing weight of the arrester pin r.ecordingly, to unlock the latch pin p from the recess e the operation bysome suitable mechanism raises the pin r thereby releasing the latch pinp. The operator then proceeds to shift the rotatory platform, until thelatch pin 7) comes opposite the next recess o of the series, whereuponthe latch pin 79 rises into said recess and again locks the rotatoryplatform in place,-this time with the traetion wheels of the ear inalinement with the rails of the intersecting track. During this shiftingmotion, the car is held arrested in its central position on theplatform, for the reason that the latch pin cannot rise until it comesopposite the recess lu, and, consequently, there is no possibility ofthe car moving off the platform during the shifting operation nor untilthe platform is securely locked in its transfer position.

Any suitable means may be employed for releasing the latch pin p and forraising the arrester pin r into engagement with the arrester plate. Ihave illustrated in Fig. 3 of the drawings, a simple device for thispurpose, consisting of a small chain or cord w which may pass around aseries of sheaves .fr and terminate in a hand-grasp v/ located inproximity to the turn-table; so that when the latch pin 77 is to bereleased and the arrester pin r raised, this may be effected by pullingupon the hand-grasp g/ and holding the hand-grasp momentarily until therotatory platform has been shifted slightly from its normal position,whereupon the handgrasp may be released.

It will be noted that the two main elcwheels of the mine pivoted lever,

ments of the turn-table, to wit,-the rotatory platform a and theoutlying wings e with the foundation plate f are, in the embodiment ofthe invention, shown in the drawings, made up of two castings, of simpleand economical design for the purposes intended. The bracket plat-es Kin this con? struction, have bolted to the frame casting, they may bereadily replaced if broken or damaged, and because of the positiverelationship existing` between them and the said casting, this serving,not only to form a solid bed-plate for the ends of the track rails, butto accurately position said track rail ends in alinement with the trackgrooves of the turn-table.

Referring further to the advantages incident to the use of theinvention, it may be said that perhaps its greatest gain is in the timesaved in the operation of the cars, it being found in practice thatwhereas, in the usual operation with the customary turne table, it wasnot infrequent that as many as a dozen cars would be thrown from thetrack or their loads dumped at the intersections of the two lines ofrails, the safeguards incident to the construct-ion and operation of thepresent invention are such as to have eliminated these mishaps and thevery serious losses of time attending upon them.

lVhat I claim is 1. A transfer turn-table trackvvays, said turn-tabletransfer platform and releasably locking the platform in normal carreceiving position, and a car arrester stop operatively connected withthe latch and tending' to restore the latch to a locking position afterthe latch has been tripped; substantially as described.

2. A transfer-turntable for intersecting trackways, having a rotarytransfer platform and provided with a combined platform latch andcar-arrester stop, consisting of a pivoted lever, carrying at one end alatch pin for the rotary platform, and carrying at the other end anarrester pin for the cars; substantiallyv as described.

3. A transfer turn-table for intersecting trackways, having a rotarytransfer platform and provided with a combined platform latch andcar-arrester stop, consisting of a pivoted lever, carrying at one end alatch pin for the rotary platform, and carrying at the other end anarrester pin for the cars, the lever being in unstable equilibrium sothat the weight of the arm carrying the arrester pin will over-balancethe weight of the arm carrying the latch pin; substantially asdescribed.

t. A transfer turn-table for intersecting trackways, having a rotarytransfer platform provided with a combined platform latch andcar-arrester stop, consisting of a carrying at one end a latch forintersecting having a rotary provided with a latch the advantage that,being pin adapted to engage with latch-receiving recesses in theplatform, and carrying at its other end an arrester-pin passing throughthe center of rotation of the platform; substant-ially as described.

5. A transfer turn-table for intersecting trackways, having a rotarytransfer platform provided with a combined platform latch andcar-arrester stop, consisting of a pivoted lever, carrying at one end alatch pin adapted to engage with latch-receiving recesses in theplatform, and carrying at its other end an arrester-pin passing throughthe center of rotation of the platform, the pivoted lever being inunstable equilibrium with the over-balance on the side of thearrester-pin; substantially as described.

6. A transfer turn -table for intersecting trackways, having a rotarytransfer platform provided with a combined platform latch andcar-arrester stop, consisting of a pivoted lever, carrying at one end alatch pin adapted to engage with latch-receiving recesses in theplatform, and carrying at its other end an arrester-pin passing throughthe center of rotation of the platform, the pivoted lever being inunstable equilibrium with the over-balance of the side of thearrester-pin, and means for tripping the latch and simultaneouslyshifting the arrester-pin from the inoperative to the operativeposition; substantially as described.

7. A transfer turn-table for intersecting trackways, having a rotarytransfer platform provided on its under-surface with a plurality oflatch-receiving recesses, corresponoling to normal car-receivingpositions of the platform, a latch coperating with said several recessesto releasably lock the platform in place, a car-arrester stop passingaxially through the rotary platform and operatively connected with thelatch, and means for tripping the latch and for moving the arrester-stopinto operative position; substantially as described.

8. A transfer turn -table for intersecting trackways, having a rotarytransfer platform provided on its under-surface with a plurality oflatch-receiving recesses, corresponding to normal car-receivingpositions of the platform, a latch coperating with said several recessesto releasably lock the platform in place, and a car-arrester stopconnected with the latch by a lever overbalanced on the side of thearrester-stop so as to normally tend to return the latch to a lockingposition, the structure being provided with an abutment preventing suchreturn until the locking position is reached; substantially asdescribed.

9. A transfer turn-table for intersecting track rails, having a rotarytransfer platform, and having a frame within and upon which the platformis supported, said frame consisting of a casting provided with removablecorner brackets serving as bedkporting brackets removably boltedthereto; 1o

plates for the end of the track rails; subsubstantially as described.

stantially as described. In testimony Whereoi1 I affix my signature,

10. In a turn-table for intersecting track in presence of two Witnesses.

rails, a frame for the transfer platform,

said rame comprising a central main body JOHN J' SMMONDS' portioneircularly recessed for the reception NWitnesses:

of the platform, and having outlying Wings, BAXTER D. MCCLAIN,

said wings being provided with ral-sup- C. W. BoULsoN.

Y Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, byaddressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

